Editorial: In Albany, power to the people

THE ISSUE The recent debacle in the state Senate demonstrates yet again that New York state government needs an overhaul.

OUR OPINION Start with a convention to change the state constitution; lawmakers and lobbyists need not attend.

“Since the question of whether New York should call a Constitutional Convention was last rejected in 1997, I believe things in state government, and all across New York, have only gotten worse.”

With that extraordinary understatement, Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb of Canandaigua has succinctly explained why it’s time for the politicians, lobbyists and other entrenched interests in Albany to step aside — or be similarly swept.

His call for a “People’s Constitutional Convention” comes while what he has called the “growing dysfunction, gridlock and partisanship” of earlier this summer is fresh in the minds of disgusted voters across the state.

Kolb noted that the convention “should be non-partisan, representative of the diverse demography and geography of our state, and be comprised of citizen legislators who can bring Main Street values and common sense to fixing the problems plaguing state government.”

What he means is no delegations from the current majority Democrats, none from Kolb’s minority GOP, none from the unions, and none from the lobbyists and others who make their living trying to influence those listed above.

Simply put, our state Legislature is beyond broken. One way to help fix it would be to set up a mechanism for seating a new lieutenant governor when the position is left vacant, as it was when Paterson ascended from lieutenant governor to governor in March 2008.

Part of the lieutenant governor’s job is to break ties in the state Senate, and a tie vote, you may recall, was at the heart of June’s state Senate abomination — an indefensible waste of taxpayer money and an inexplicable display of power-grabbing that saw both Republicans and Democrats rewarding a pair of self-interested Dem-ocratic senators who seemed happy to sell their allegiance to the highest bidder. The imbroglio left the balance of power in the Senate temporarily split at 31-31 and, with no lieutenant governor to break the tie, all work ceased.

Because the state constitution includes no provision for appointing, anointing, electing, crowning or otherwise naming a lieutenant governor, the best way to start that process seems to be to amend the constitution.

A Siena College Poll released on Monday reported that 54 percent of voters say they are “completely frustrated with our government and wish we could throw them all out and elect new leaders,” while 40 percent say “it’s a difficult time” and lawmakers are “doing the best they can to improve conditions for all New Yorkers.”

They’re being kind.

Pollster Steven Greenberg explained that “by a 63-25 percent margin, voters support having a state constitutional convention, including a majority of voters from every party, every region, every religion, every race, and every age group. While the issue of a convention is not popular with many elected officials, it is with their constituents.”

Albany, for too long, has operated based on what’s popular with elected officials rather than constituents. It’s time the latter had a say in the way their state is being mismanaged, and a people’s convention is one way for that to happen.

Those who have so long been part of the problem have ceded their chance to be part of the solution.